A peace agreement brokered by the White House to stem the bloodshed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where a militia allegedly backed by Rwanda occupies vast swaths of land, will be signed in Washington D.C. on Friday by officials of the two African nations.

But many remain unconvinced that the accord – portrayed as a “wonderful treaty” by United States President Donald Trump – can end the complex and long-running conflict, while the militia itself has yet to commit to laying down its weapons.

Trump was upbeat about the prospects for peace when teams from Rwanda and the DRC initialed a draft agreement on June 18, while at the same time suggesting that he would not get credit for his role in ending this or other conflicts.

On June 20, he wrote on Truth Social: “This is a Great Day for Africa and, quite frankly, a Great Day for the World! I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this.”

He added: “I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!”

Trump touts himself as a “peacemaker” and has expanded his interest in global conflicts to the brutal war in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. His peace deal could also pave the way for America’s economic interests in the region, as it eyes access to the DRC’s critical minerals.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will preside over the signing of the peace agreement by DRC Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart Olivier Nduhungirehe on Friday.

More than 7,000 people have been killed, and some one million others displaced since January, when the M23 militia waged a fresh offensive against the Congolese army, seizing control of the two largest cities in the country’s east.

There has been increasing reports of summary executions – even of children – in occupied areas, where aid groups say they are also witnessing an epidemic of rape and sexual violence.

A complex war

The crisis in the eastern DRC, which shares a border with Rwanda and harbors large deposits of minerals critical to the production of electronics, is a fusion of complex issues.

In that genocide, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias.

Rwanda criticizes the DRC, which faces problems with militia violence, for integrating a proscribed Hutu militia group into its army to fight against the mainly Tutsi M23.

M23, which first emerged in 2012, is one of the most prominent militias battling for control of the DRC’s mineral wealth. The rebel group also claims to defend the interests of the Tutsis and other Congolese minorities of Rwandan origin.

UN experts and much of the international community believe that Rwanda backs M23 and supports the rebels with troops, leaving the nation on the cusp of war with the DRC over this alleged territorial violation.

The Rwandan government has not acknowledged this claim but insists it protects itself against the Hutu militia operating in the DRC, which it describes as an “existential security threat to Rwanda.”

M23 occupies strategic mining towns in the DRC’s eastern provinces of North and South Kivu.

In a report in December, the UN Group of Experts on the DRC said they found evidence that minerals “were fraudulently exported to Rwanda” from the DRC “and mixed with Rwandan production.”

Rwandan President Paul Kagame drew outrage last year when he admitted in a public address that Rwanda was a transit point for minerals smuggled from the DRC but insisted his country was not stealing from its neighbor.

What’s contained in the US peace deal?

Washington’s peace accord contains provisions on “respect for territorial integrity and a prohibition of hostilities,” including “disengagement, disarmament, and conditional integration of non-state armed groups,” according to a joint statement issued by the US, Rwanda and the DRC on June 18.

Other points include “facilitation of the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as humanitarian access” and the establishment of a “regional economic integration framework” that could attract significant US investments into Rwanda and the DRC.

Asked whether AFC would surrender its arms, Victor Tesongo, a spokesperson for the coalition, said it was “not there yet” and that it was waiting on developments in Doha. He did not confirm whether airports in the eastern DRC that had been shut by the rebels would reopen for aid supply.

Why US efforts may fail

Previous truce agreements have failed to bring lasting peace between M23 and the Congolese armed forces.

In April, the rebels jointly declared a truce after meeting with representatives of the DRC during negotiations led by Qatar. Fighting flared up days after.

Qatar has been facilitating talks after Angolan President João Lourenço quit his mediation role following months of inability to broker peace.

One of those root causes, he said, was the “unfair distribution” of the DRC’s mineral wealth, which he claimed, “benefits a small elite and foreign powers, while ordinary Congolese, especially in the east, suffer displacement and misery.”

The DRC is roughly the size of western Europe and is home to more than 100 million people. The Central African nation is also endowed with the world’s largest reserves of cobalt – used to produce batteries that power cell phones and electric vehicles – and coltan, which is refined into tantalum and has a variety of applications in phones and other devices.

However, according to the World Bank, “most people in DRC have not benefited from this wealth,” and the country ranks among the five poorest nations in the world.

Kubelwa said another trigger for the conflict in the DRC was the country’s “weak institutions” and “suppression of dissent.”

A fragile peace

The DRC foreign minister’s office said it would comment on the deal after the document is signed.

Congolese human rights activist and Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege has described the deal as “vague” and tilted in Rwanda’s favor.

After details of the draft agreement were announced last week, he posted a statement on X criticizing it for failing to recognize “Rwanda’s aggression against the DRC,” which he wrote, “suggests it (the peace accord) benefits the unsanctioned aggressor, who will thus see its past and present crimes whitewashed as ‘economic cooperation.’”

He added: “In its current state, the emerging agreement would amount to granting a reward for aggression, legitimizing the plundering of Congolese natural resources, and forcing the victim to alienate their national heritage by sacrificing justice in order to ensure a precarious and fragile peace.”

For Kubelwa, “a true and lasting solution must go beyond ceasefires and formal agreements. It must include genuine accountability, regional truth-telling, redistribution of national wealth, reform of governance, and a broad national dialogue that includes all Congolese voices not just elites or foreign allies.”

“Without this, peace remains a fragile illusion,” he said.

Iran’s defense minister has traveled to diplomatic and economic ally China on his first reported trip abroad since a 12-day clash with Israel that briefly dragged the US into a new regional conflict.

Aziz Nasirzadeh is one of nine defense ministers that Chinese state media say attended a gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a China- and Russia-led regional security grouping that has grown in prominence as Beijing and Moscow look to build alternative international blocs to those backed by the United States.

The two-day gathering began Wednesday in the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao, a day after a ceasefire between Iran and Israel quelled what had been days of aerial assaults between the two, punctuated by a US strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities.

The SCO gathering coincided with a meeting of NATO leaders at The Hague, where US President Donald Trump said the US would meet with Iran “next week” about a potential nuclear agreement.

Beijing’s gathering, part of events for its rotating SCO chairmanship, spotlighted China’s role as a key international player, even as it remained largely on the sidelines of the Israel-Iran conflict – and the importance Tehran places on its relationship with Beijing.

Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun did not directly address the conflict in remarks to gathering nations Wednesday, as reported by Chinese state media, but aimed to position China as a country with an alternative vision for global security.

“Unilateralism and protectionism are surging, while hegemonic, high-handed, and bullying acts severely undermine the international order, making these practices the biggest sources of chaos and harm,” Dong said, employing language typically used by Beijing to criticize the US.

The Chinese defense chief called for SCO countries – which, in addition to China and Russia, include India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus – to enhance coordination and “defend international fairness and justice” and “uphold global strategic stability.”

Attending countries “expressed a strong willingness to consolidate and develop military collaboration,” according to China’s official news agency Xinhua.

Iran’s Nasirzadeh “expressed gratitude to China for its understanding and support of Iran’s legitimate stance,” Xinhua also reported.

The minister “hopes that China will continue to uphold justice and play an even greater role in maintaining the current ceasefire and easing regional tensions,” he was quoted as saying.

Chinese officials have condemned Israel’s unprecedented June 13 attack on Iran, which took out top military leaders and sparked the recent conflict, as well as the subsequent US bombing. It’s also backed a ceasefire and criticized Washington’s foray into the conflict as a “heavy blow to the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.”

A key diplomatic and economic backer of Iran, Beijing has moved to further deepen collaboration in recent years, including holding joint naval drills. Chinese officials have long voiced opposition to US sanctions on Iran and criticized the US withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

In recent days, China has appeared unwilling to become further entangled in the conflict past its diplomatic efforts, analysts say, instead using the situation as another opportunity to paint itself as a responsible global player and the US as a force for instability.

Founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to combat terrorism and promote border security, the SCO has grown in recent years in line with Beijing and Moscow’s shared ambition to push back against a US alliance system they see as suppressing them.

While not an alliance, the group says it aims to “make joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region.”

The SCO has long been seen as limited, however, by overlapping interests and frictions between members, including Pakistan and India, which earlier this year engaged in a violent conflict, as well as China and India, which have longstanding border tensions.

Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh also attended the Qingdao meeting, the first visit from an Indian defense chief to China since a deadly 2020 border clash between the two countries.

Dara Ojo was once afraid of spiders, particularly the biting, venomous kind. How times have changed. Not only is the photographer willing to get up very close and personal with arachnids of all stripes, he’s passionately conserving insects through this work.

Ojo, 34, is a master of macrophotography — extreme close-up shots, in this case of wildlife — showing tiny critters in all their odd, beautiful glory.

For the photographer, who describes himself as a conservation storyteller, it is about “shining the light on these tiny little details that people just walk past because they’re small.”

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, and now living in Canada, Ojo’s first encounter with photography was using his father’s Nikon camera as a child. He photographed birds, snakes, frogs and other creatures. Much later, he was teaching English in China when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and began photographing insects as a remedy to the boredom of lockdown.

But there was another purpose too: amid the deluge of photographs of different animals he saw online, Ojo noticed relatively little high-profile work of nature’s smallest creations. He wanted to fill this gap, “and also create some positive publicity for insects.”

Eyes like speakers, posterior like pagodas

Ojo first learned how to shoot macrophotography from YouTube tutorials and took a course called “Bugs 101: Insect-Human Interactions” at the University of Alberta, Canada. In 2020 he created his first macro image, of a dragonfly. Two years later, his photos of a white-striped longhorn beetle taken in China went viral.

The beetle is typically 20-40 mm long, but Ojo’s image of the insect makes it feel human-size, with an intimidating yet intriguing poise. Its eyes look like speakers, and details invisible to the naked eye, like its microscopic facial hairs, are on full display.

His work has circulated the internet, with some Instagram posts hitting almost a million views. It has also caught the attention of the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed who shared some of them on X, to mark the 2025 World Biodiversity Day.

But the recognition brings certain pressures. “Now that eyes are on me, globally, I have to keep the bar higher than the last, each time I shoot. Also, as a black person, I feel like a role model, giving a voice as people of color who are not usually seen in this kind of field. I therefore can’t stay comfortable,” he says.

Some other striking images are of the primrose moth, with distinct vivid pink and yellow coloring; a spiny-backed orb weaver spider with a pagoda-like posterior; a katydid — a type of cricket — with a face akin to a church dome; and a wolf spider eating a frog.

Ojo says, “I’m in awe of them when I am shooting. I see in them how God is a perfect designer, and the need for us to protect them.”

He has photographed more than 40 types of spiders, 50 moths and 30 butterflies species, over 20 dragonflies and at least 70 damselflies. Among all the fauna he’s photographed, the state of bees worries him the most. “Bees are rare and really endangered even though they are essential to our existence because of their pollination.” Ojo says.

Now, his work is being featured in “Insect Apocalypse,” the first episode of the documentary “Bugs that Rule the World,” which is being shown in the US and Canada. The four-part series focuses on the decline of insects and how this is detrimental to the ecosystem and to human existence, and includes photographs Ojo took in Costa Rica.

Ojo is working to release the first coffee table book of his works in 2026, and plans to add three more in the next five years.

Yet photography is not Ojo’s full-time occupation. He works as a data analyst at the University of Alberta, and has an MBA in information technology from Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, United Kingdom.

His tech background, he says, gives him an edge with processing the pictures, which are best taken at night and early morning when insects are asleep or resting, he explains. He captures multiple photographs at different depths of field and combines them using stacking software so the whole insect is in pin-sharp focus. Since the images are shot without alterations, he then digitally edits them, mainly to enhance colors.

Though he occasionally sells prints of his photography, his advocacy for his subjects is his main motive, Ojo says. Insect populations around the world are in peril. Among his once-feared spiders, for example, scores are categorized as critically endangered.

“The primary goal is to use my images to reveal the beauty of insects and other small creatures,” he says. First he draws people in, then shares a conservation message, then, hopefully, people will take action, Ojo explains.

“When people are blown away by the pictures, they are curious and develop empathy to conserve them.”